Invisible
by The Pirate Illusionist
Summary: Minako goes to a convention with Artemis. Not able to find another costume, she dresses as Sailor V.


Author's Note: This story was written for a friend while we were watching Sailor Moon a few months back and I asked why Minako didn't go as Sailor V to a cosplay event. The story came out of that.

DISCLAIMER: I do not own Sailor Moon.

* * *

"This… won't… do!" Minako shouted from her room as she stormed out with a huff. She expected her mother to come to the stair and ask her what was wrong, but no one came. "This won't do," she huffed again and waited for a few more minutes, arms crossed over her chest. Where were her parents? They were supposed to be home now and she tapped her foot impatiently until Artemis peaked his head out of her room.

"Minako, your parents aren't here."

She tilted her head to the side as she glanced back at the white cat. "They're not?"

"No. Don't you remember your father is at work and your mother said she was going out with her friends this afternoon?"

"Oh yeah!" she exclaimed as Artemis just shook his head with a disappointed look. "Fine, then you'll just have to help me, Artemis!" She skipped back into her room, blonde hair flowing behind her. She stopped at her closet and looked inside at the few items that were hanging inside. She started to pull them down and toss them to the floor. "This won't do… no… no… no…" She let out a frustrated sigh again and spun around to look at Artemis who was sitting near the door. She put her hands on her hips, looking at him for only a second before seeing the state of her room. It was a complete disaster. A large amount of clothing and accessories were strewn about the room in a disorganized fashion. It looked like a tornado had gone through the room and left a devastating mess. The tornado was none other than Minako herself. Her gaze traveled over the piles of clothing, trying to see if there was anything that she missed or that she would actually want. "Do you see anything, Artemis?"

"No. Why can't you just wear that costume you wore before?"

She shook her head. "Because I _already _wore it to a convention," she said in a matter-of-fact tone. "I need something that people will think that I look awesome in. That way, maybe I can pick up a boyfriend there." Artemis opened his mouth to interrupt, but Minako did not stop. She clasped her hands together and looked upward. "Or there will be someone there who thinks I look so good, they'll want to make me a star!"

Artemis put a paw to his head. "Minako…" he started, ready to say something that she probably already knew, but had forgotten until she let out a gasp.

"I have an idea!" She ran over to her to her dresser and picked up what had made her gasp like that. She held it out for Artemis to see. "I'm going to go as Sailor V!"

Artemis frowned. "I don't think that's such a good idea."

"Why not? I'll have the best costume there! It's authentic!" She paused and placed her hands back on her hips. "Anyway, who _wouldn't _want to go as Sailor V?" Artemis just sighed, he knew he was not going to be able discourage her from going as Sailor V now that she had her mind set on it. He was just going to go along with it as long as he did not have to be stuffed into that basket again.

-

Minako was grinning at the brilliance of her costume as she bounded off the bus towards the convention center. She was hoping there was someone else there that would be dressed as her so she could make comments about their costume. No one would have the exact red bow that she wore in her hair or the same mask she had on at every event as Sailor V. She even brought Artemis along with her as her prop. She had been carrying him in her arms, but she then placed him up on her shoulder. He said it was so that in case he had to say something to her, he would be able to without anyone hearing him, but she knew he really liked riding up there. Oh well, she would let him keep that to himself if it kept his pride intact. For a cat, he could be rather touchy.

Still grinning and giddy, she stood in line with her ticket and waited to get closer to the front. It did not take too long and she handed her ticket over to a man dressed in a security uniform. He looked bored as he snatched it out of her hand and looked at it. As he handed it back, his eyes fell on Artemis.

"You can't bring a cat in here," he said, his voice as boring as he looked.

"He's a prop."

The security guard still looked bored. "You still can't bring him in."

"Why not?"

"Rule are rules, miss."

Minako groaned and crossed her arms. "They can't be set in gold, can they?"

The man raised an eyebrow and cocked his head to the side. "What?"

"The rules. They can't be set in gold."

"Stone," Artemis corrected without really thinking that he was talking out loud.

The man's eyes narrowed and his eyebrows knitted together. "Did that cat just talk?"

Minako laughed nervously, trying to think of some way to cover it all up. "No," she said, thinking on her feet. "He's actually a life like looking doll. Didn't I mention that? When I touch him, he says words." She proceeded to poke Artemis in the stomach and he repeated the word stone again. "See?"

The man looked skeptical, but he moved out of the way. "That's a pretty useless toy if all he can say is stone."

Minako grinned again as she moved passed him. As she continued towards the convention, Artemis whispered in her ear, "You didn't need to poke me so hard, Minako."

"I know, but he wasn't going to let us in otherwise," she replied in a low voice so no one would hear her. Artemis wanted to say something else, but Minako was not listening to him at all. "Now, we just need to find some people to say how great my costume is." Artemis let out a groan as she surveyed the room.

-  
Minako stood near a table, arms folded in front of her and Artemis still perched on her shoulder. No one was paying any attention to her costume! She stood here for the past ten minutes with people in ridiculous looking costumes passing by her. Hers was the most authentic and she could not believe no one was coming up to her. They must have been too busy in the convention itself. Minako decided that she was going to be proactive. If no one was going to ask her about her costume, she was going to make them ask! With a wicked grin, she walked over to a group of people, discussing who knew what. She was not sure. She was just interrupting them.

"Hi there!" The group glanced at her, a little irritated that she had intruded in on their conversation. "I hope you don't mind me joining in. I was all alone over there," she said, pointing over to the table where she had just been standing. "I saw you over here and thought I might introduce myself and see what costumes you have on." She looked at all five of them. There was one dressed as a Final Fantasy character, a ninja from Mortal Kombat, a character that she didn't know, the girl from Kingdom Hearts, and one dressed as Sailor Moon. The costume made her want to laugh, but she was not going to point it out at the moment. "So, what's your names?" The ninja was the one who spoke. She did not like that she could not see his mouth move. She heard him mutter through the names, but she could not understand a single one of them. "I'm Minako! Do you like my costume?" she asked, losing all of the subtly that she might have had earlier.

The five people looked at her, taking in her costume. Finally, one of the females put her hand to her mouth, trying to think. "Who are you supposed to be?"

"What!" Minako was shocked that the girl could not guess who she was right away.

"Yeah, I'm not sure who you're supposed to be either," said the one dressed as a wizard. "I don't think I've ever seen your character before."

"Come on! She had a manga, video games, and she was even real!"

They all looked confused before one of the others started to laugh. "Real?"

Minako crossed her arms and nodded stubbornly. "Yes. I am…"

"Wait!" the Final Fantasy boy held up his hand. "Let us guess."

They stared at her for another two minutes until the girl dressed as Sailor Moon finally smirked. "Are you supposed to be Sailor Moon? Because if you are, you're costume isn't as great as mine."

"Yeah, you're skirt isn't the right color…" one chimed in.

"Your hair isn't right."

"She doesn't wear a mask."

"And she doesn't have a white cat!"

Minako's eyes widened as she huffed. "No! I'm not Sailor Moon. Besides, you're costume is horrible." She pouted slightly as Artemis resisted the urge to groan. "I can't believe you don't know who I am!"

"We do. You're just denying it," replied one of the characters she did not recognized.

"I'm not Sailor Moon!" she repeated in another huff. "Anyway, who are you supposed to be? Tom Finn?" All of them looked confused, so she elaborated, "You know, the Adventures of Tom Finn and Huck Sawyer. It's an American novel." Minako didn't read much, but they had been forced to read this for one of their English lessons. She found it boring.

"You mean Tom Sawyer and Huck Finn?" the wannabe Sailor Moon asked with a snicker. "I've read that book as well, but at least I can keep their names straight."

Minako frowned and put her hands on her hips, trying to ignore the girl as she turned back to the kid in the strange outfit. "No, I'm not whatever you said. I'm from One Piece. I'm L…"

She shrugged her shoulders. "You still don't know who I am?" she asked, interrupting the poor boy who was starting to look frustrated.

"You're Sailor Moon," the wannabe said in a slow voice as if Minako couldn't understand her.

Another huff and she had to resist the urge of stomping her foot. "No! I'm Sailor V!" she finally pointed out. "See, the red mask, the white cat, the colors?"

The Sailor Moon wannabe shrugged her shoulders. "Never heard of her." A few of them nodded in agreement and Minako was fuming by this point.

"Never heard of her! She was before Sailor Moon! She was protecting people before Sailor Moon!" Minako was getting frustrated, but she was not noticing how annoyed the group she had imposed herself on was becoming. Finally, the ninja muttered something that they needed to move on and get ready for the gaming competition and they left poor Minako standing by herself.

They did not know! She could not believe it! She grabbed a teenager dressed as someone from Soul Caliber by the shirt. "Do you know who I am supposed to be?" Perplexed, he shook his head. "I'm Sailor V!" she shouted and eventually, she let the terrified boy go. How could no one know? She thought Sailor V had been big. "How can they not know who I am, Artemis?"

"Well, Minako, Sailor V was a few years ago. They could have forgotten…."

"How could they have forgotten about me?" she asked, her voice starting to get shrill and the cat winced.

"Some people just do."

"Well, they shouldn't forget about me!" she said as she stormed off to go the gaming competition. "No one should _ever _forget about me!"

-  
Minako was sulking as she left the convention center. Artemis was chatting in her ear, telling her something about how the people did not know what they were talking about and that her costume was absolutely brilliant. She was not listening to him. He did not want her to go like this in the first place. How could she take him seriously? The rest of her day had not been as wonderful as she had wanted it to be. Instead of getting recognition, everyone kept mistaking her for a poor copy of Sailor Moon. In fact, she had to face off against that wannabe Sailor Moon in the competition during the first round and the girl had beaten her. It took all her strength not to snap at the point. What made it worse was at the end when almost the entire dumb group won prizes for the best costumes, even that wannabe, but she did not even get honorable mention. No one had noticed her at all. This day was horrible. "No one noticed me, Artemis," she interrupted. "What am I supposed to do?" She heard the now annoying cat state something that she already knew, but she was still sulking as she went to cross the street and she heard the voice of a little girl as she passed go, "Mamma, mamma, is that Sailor V?" At that, a grin spread across Minako's face. Finally! Someone knew who she was! The grin grew wider and Artemis finally noticed that Minako was smiling. "Minako, what's wrong?" he asked. She shook her head, "Someone knew who I was! Someone knew who I was!" she chattered more to herself than to the cat. She practically skipped the entire way home.


End file.
